-- Alan Edwards, for being named Lamar University's new head volleyball coach. Edwards comes to Beaumont from Knoxville, Tenn., where he helped guide the Lady Vols program to two of its better seasons in program history, according to a Lamar news release. While working directly with Tennessee's middle blockers, he oversaw a national recruiting program that brought some of the country's best talent to Knoxville. Edwards' most recent recruiting class was ranked 17th nationally by prepvolleyball.com. Overall, he has more than 15 years of NCAA Division I coaching experience. Edwards replaces Justin Gibert who resigned following a 9-21 campaign.

-- West Brook High School senior offensive lineman Andrew Bluiett, for getting a scholarship offer from Central Arkansas, a team that plays in the Southland Conference with Lamar. The 6-foot-4 350 pound lineman had gone unnoticed in the recruiting world, but he finally broke through as the anchor of an offensive line that averaged 344 yards a game, with 244 of them coming on the ground. Ironically, additional offers may soon begin coming in for Bluiett since he has a GPA over 3.0 and is waiting on his standardized testing results (ACT and SAT), which could increase interest in him.

-- H-E-B customers statewide, whose generosity allowed the company to make a $225,000 donation to the American Red Cross to the families and communities devastated by Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. The company's statewide checkstand donation campaign raised $125,000 by letting customers add donations in increments of $1, $3, or $5 to their total grocery bill. H-E-B then donated an additional $100,000, according to a company news release. One hundred percent of the donations will be devoted to logistics, disaster assessments, health, clean drinking water and sanitation for the typhoon victims.

-- Lamar University senior football players Jesse Dickson and Chris Maikranz, for being named to the 2013 Sports Network FCS All-America squad. Both Dickson and Maikranz received third-team honors, according to a Lamar news release. Dickson led the team and finished ninth in the conference with 81 total tackles. He was the only lineman in the Southland to rank among the league's top 30 in that category. Maikranz, the team's deep snapper since Lamar resurrected the program, never recorded a bad snap in four seasons.

Brickbats go to:

-- Hackers who forced an Austin-area school district to shut down its websites after its education updates replaced with obscene images and vulgar language. The Round Rock Independent School District websites were closed last Sunday, according to the AP. A message on the main site said "All Round Rock ISD websites are currently unavailable" and apologized for the inconvenience. The hacking that was discovered late last Saturday night, but a district spokeswoman said no student information was compromised.